By John Otis | Photographs by Johanna Alarcón for The Wall Street Journal
While sex trafficking is a global problem, human-rights advocates say it has become especially acute in recent years among migrants who have fled dictatorship and the economic crisis in Venezuela. Government officials and rights groups in the Andean region say the traffickers exploit the exodus of nearly six million people from Venezuela—the world’s largest continuing refugee crisis, in number of migrants fleeing, after Syria—by coercing some into sexual bondage with bogus job offers.
This week we are featuring the work of Ecuadorian Photographers. Ecuador straddles part of the Andes Mountains and occupies part of the Amazon basin. Situated on the Equator, from which its name derives, it borders Colombia to the north, Peru to the east and the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. We start this week with Johis Alarcón.
The Women Photograph Year in Pictures showcases 100 images from 100 of our 1,300+ members across the globe, highlighting assignment work, long term documentary projects, and personal stories from the past year.
Johis Alarcon is a female Ecuadorian photojournalist whose work is focused on socio-cultural humanitarian and gender issues, primarily in Latin America.